The present invention relates to an indoor unit of an air conditioner and a method of packing the same in a packing case or box for transportation or the like.
An air conditioner for carrying out heating or cooling operation and dehumidification operation includes a split type air conditioner comprising indoor unit and outdoor unit which are separated from each other. In the split type air conditioner, a cross flow fan as an indoor side fan driven by a motor is accommodated in a body casing of the indoor unit, and in an air conditioner of large capacity, when the cross flow fan is mounted to the body casing, a fan made of aluminium has been widely utilized because of its light structure for the reason of its size and lot.
In a case where an indoor unit of an air conditioner mounted with such cross flow fan is conveyed or transported, there is a fear of being plastically deformed by an impact during the transportation. When the air conditioner mounted with the deformed cross flow fan is installed and operated, an abnormal vibration may be caused, and the cross flow fan and a fan motor may cause a trouble caused by the abnormal vibration.
In a prior art technology concerning such conventional split type air conditioner for preventing the plastical deformation due to the impact, for example, during the transportation, the cross flow fan is transported in a state of being suspended by using a plurality of protection bands 2 as shown in FIG. 5. The protection band 2 is Guided along a front panel 5a of a body casing 5 from a blowoff port 4 through a suspension hook 3 and secured at its other end to an upper cabinet 5b of the body casing by means of band fastening screw 2a. In an actual transportation of the indoor unit 6 of the split type air conditioner, as shown in FIG. 6, the indoor unit 6 is accommodated in a packing case 7 with the body casing 5 of the indoor unit 6 upside down and a protection cushioning material 8 such as styrene foam is then packed in the space of the body casing 5. In thus manner, the packing case 7 is packed.
However, in this protection manner of the indoor unit of the conventional split type air conditioner, it is required to wind up the protection bands around the cross flow fan in a narrow space in the body casing, thus being troublesome and inconvenient when the indoor unit is assembled and accommodated in the body casing. Moreover, it is necessary to adjust the suspension strength of the protection bands, being also troublesome. There is also a fear of an undesired strain being applied to the cross flow fan from the protection bands.
Furthermore, there is no good workability for assembling the protection bands in the nallow space in the body casing and it is not to say that the attaching position of the protection bands is always uniform, thus giving no reliability for firm securing of the cross flow fan during the transportation of the indoor unit of the air conditioner.
Still furthermore, because the suspension hook is not positioned on a perpendicular line passing the center position of the cross flow fan accommodated in the body casing, the suspension force for the cross flow fan is weak or may be instable against an impact in an arrowd direction A in FIG. 5 during the transportation, this also constituting a problem to the conventional protection method.
The disattachment of the protection bands at an installing portion after the transportation requires an additional time and labor, thus being inconvenient and disadvantageous.